The Department of Health (DOH) is continuing its efforts to capacitate more government-owned hospitals across the country to become kidney transplant centers to treat Filipinos suffering from kidney diseases.

Peter Paul M. Plegaria, Chief Transplant Coordinator at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), said some regions have yet to establish medical facilities capable of performing kidney transplants.

“Mayroon pa rin po kasi tayong mga regional centers (in some) regions po sa Philippines na wala pa pong transplant centers. So like in Cagayan Valley, MIMAROPA, Zamboanga Peninsula, we have the SOCCSKSARGEN, CARAGA and we have MOH-BARMM – so wala pang mga transplant centers,” Plegaria told a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday.

“So the NKTI po is capacitating other DOH hospitals po to be a renal center din po so that maging transplant center din po sila and makapag-cater na rin po sila ng transplant,” he added, stressing the need for the government to improve access to transplant centers.

At present, the country has 38 transplant centers—11 government hospitals and 27 private hospitals.

According to Plegaria, Chronic Kidney Disease is one of the leading causes of illness and death in the Philippines, with latest reports showing that around 2.3 million Filipinos have CKD.

The NKTI estimates that one Filipino develops chronic kidney failure every hour or about 120 Filipinos per million population every year, he said. PND